Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/841719
by Kerry Clines | Online Editor PLANT PROFILE 12 AGGREGATES MANAGER / July 2017 Still Going Strong W hen Dolese Bros. Co. acquired a lease to operate Richards Spur Quarry near Lawton, Okla., in January 1907, it had already been working on the site as a contract crusher making ballast for the railroad. The quarry is located on tribal land, so the lease was between Dolese and the Comanche tribesmen of the community. "When we fi rst started mining here, it was a mountain," says Melvin Barks, operations manager. "Since then, it has been mined down, and the quarry is now 300 feet down below ground level. We're located right at the end of a small mountain range that runs off to the northwest." The operation Richards Spur Quarry consists of a couple thousand acres with future reserves on the other side of the county road. The deposit is a high-quality limestone that is state approved for road work. There are approximately 93 hourly employees and four supervisors, in addition to Barks. The operation runs 24/7, for the most part, with two eight-hour production shifts and one eight-hour maintenance shift. The production shifts run from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The maintenance crew works from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., as does the stockpiling crew responsible for getting the product where it needs to be for sales the next day. "Sunday is a little more fl exible," Barks says. "If the fi rst production shift comes on and there aren't a whole lot of maintenance needs, the maintenance guys don't work Sunday. They are on call." Richards Spur Quarry is still breaking rock after more than a century in operation.